Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Archive for September, 2010
Crown Jewels
Sep 25th
I couldn’t make it to the county council’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, but I kept my eye on the webcast.
During a speech about the state of the nation, Labour’s Jewel Miah mentioned bankers.
He said they had been “castrated” by the public. Clearly a slip of the tongue, everyone assumed.
But as he continued with his speech, he kept repeating the error.
The hard-left wing of the Labour Party wants tougher financial controls on reckless bankers.
Seems like Jewel wants to go a little further than that…
Dating and democracy
Sep 25th
I spoke to a non-Mercury journalist today, and discovered that one of our local councillors recently asked her out on a date.
Was the proposed date a romantic candlelit meal for two? A trip to the cinema? A few drinks in a neighbourhood bar, perhaps?
“Er, he asked if I’d go hunting with him. I’m a vegetarian.”
Mr Smooth.
Crowdsourcing public sector pay
Sep 22nd
One of the things I’ve wanted to do since setting up this blog is use the collective wisdom and intelligence of my readers to make my stories more interesting and relevant.
There are two people at the Mercury dedicated to politics, plus our lobby correspondent in London. Employing three full-time politics staffers shows how seriously the Mercury takes our local political scene – but extra help is always appreciated.
Today’s front page is about public sector pay. It is based on data in a pretty big spreadsheet which I combed through yesterday.
In keeping with my new resolution of uploading as much raw data to this blog as possible for you to comb through, I’ve included a link to the uploaded spreadsheet below.
Click the link, take a look at it, and if you notice anything interesting that you’d like to see me looking into further then leave a message in the comments, or send me an @reply on Twitter.
If it works, I’ll be doing it more often.
Question time
Sep 17th
I’ve just had a councillor on the phone who’s incandescent with rage.
Last night’s full council meeting had 39 questions submitted to it by councillors. The questions took up around two hours of the meeting, I’m told.
The member said:
“[Ross] Grant’s questions about Phoenix and Curve and all that we’re alright. But it was the questions thrown in by other councillors which p***** me off.
“We’re facing the biggest funding crisis in our history and people are asking how many ******* empty allotment plots there are in the city. Who gives a ****?
“When we [Labour] were in opposition questions would be used to make a point about an issue. Most of the questions now don’t seem to go anywhere, and the answers are available elsewhere. They’ve only got to ask the ******* officers.”
Robocop and The Sun
Sep 13th
South Leicestershire Tory MP Andrew Robathan has gone on the offensive against The Sun (which backed the Conservatives at the General Election).
Outgoing deputy political editor of the Evening Standard, Paul Waugh, picks up the story:
The Sun reported today that British troops are to be secretly sacked on the cheap as they fight on the frontline.
The plans, revealed in leaked Army documents, include moves to cut redundancy and pensions.
When Labour’s Kevan Jones raised the issue in Defence Questions just now, Defence Minister Andrew Robathan went on the offensive.
Instead of saying he would look into the allegations, Robocop (as he’s known affectionately to Tory backbenchers since his successful days as Shadow Deputy Chief Whip) said:
“I counsel him not to believe everything he reads in The Sun..or every other newspaper”.
Given that Her Majesty’s Currant Bun told the entire nation to vote Tory at the last election, it’s no wonder a few jeers went up around the chamber…
Read Paul’s fantastic blog (while you still can) here.
Ross Grant’s iPad apps
Sep 13th
I’m always looking to find new ways to use the Freedom of Information Act.
While Ross Grant says he’d have been happy to send a list of his council iPad apps through to the Mercury, it’s still interesting that they have been released under FOI. Good one to use for future reference when considering requesting info on a public figure’s computer usage.
The list is provided via the excellent What Do They Know:
Contacts, Safari, Penultimate, iBooks, iDraft, Videos, Notes, iPod, Maps, Photos, GoodReader, iTunes, App Store, YouTube, Settings, Facebook, Numbers, Twitterific, Pages, Foursquare, Keynote, Adobe Ideas, iDisk, Draw, Google, PhotoPad, Dropbox, ReelDirector, Evernote, PhotoShare, Echofon, Big Calendar, PrintCentral, eBay, Calendar, DocStats, GW Calendar, BBC News, GW Mail, ABC News, Mail, Dictionary, Dragon Dictation, Bloomberg, SkyGrid, Met Office, WIRED, Marvel, Cool Hunting, IKEA UK, Super 7 HD, Boxcar, iBrainstorm, Scoot, Tweetradar, Rightmove, OS GB 250k, Skype, F1 Timing App, SimplyTweet, TV Guide, Huddle, FlipBoard, Wikipanion
When council officers get a bit political…
Sep 10th
Officers of a council are supposed to be apolitical, and ensure they don’t allow their own views to influence their roles.
While councillors can bark all they like about party politics, officers must hold their tongue.
So I raised an eyebrow when I spotted this line in a report to the city council’s audit and risk committee next week.
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has confirmed the government is pulling the plug on the Building Schools for the Future programme.
A senior council contact is not amused: “This is unnecessarily political and with no context. Also it is a government decision, so this is overtly personal. I have never seen a report mention a named person rather than position.”
Did cabinet make the right decision on Phoenix bailout?
Sep 8th
Was the bailout of the Phoenix the right thing to do?
Because around £7 million has already been ploughed into the centre by the authority so far, to let it fail for the sake of a fraction of that figure wouldn’t appear to make sense. Senior figures at the Phoenix and council must now make sure that the overhaul of the centre puts it on a firm financial footing for the future. A second bailout would be hard to stomach, and I’ve had word from several cabinet members that they would oppose any attempt by Phoenix to come to the council cap in hand for a second time.
However you could speculate whether – in the long run – refusing the cash would have saved the council money in the long run.
Let me explain.
I was talking to a colleague in the newsroom, and I said that if I was put in charge of any project linked to the council I would know deep down that I could run it beyond its means, confident that if it ran into trouble there was a council safety net to rescue those involved.
Taking a stand and refusing cash to Phoenix Square would have been a major decision, but it would have served as a warning to board members elsewhere for decades to come that the taxpayer purse wouldn’t always be opened by the council to prop up a struggling enterprise.
Just a thought.
Kitterick’s comments
Sep 6th
I remember touring the Phoenix Centre back in February when the then culture secretary Ben Bradshaw came to the city.
Patrick Kitterick, who was city regeneration chief at the time, pulled me to one side and remarked: “The Mercury did loads of stories about Curve because of the money troubles and delay, but the Phoenix was a success story so you lot weren’t interested.”
I just happened to recall this comment as I put the finishing touches to Tuesday’s front page on the Phoenix’s £250,000 emergency bailout, less than a year after it opened.
Where did it all go wrong?
Sep 5th
As you’re no doubt well aware, Phoenix Square is in financial crisis. Without a £250,000 bail out from the city council today it is likely to go bust.
One thing that I find particularly interesting is the make-up of the board. It is easy to make the assumption that those in charge are likely to be the usual faces on the merry-go-round of local boards, committees and panels. But you’d be wrong.
At first glance, it’s pretty impressive. It includes Microsoft’s lead UK technology adviser, the founder of the UK Youth Parliament, two professors and a handful of film and culture enthusiasts.
But you can have all the experts you can find in charge of the Phoenix, but when they still haven’t figured out that it’s worth putting a cinema sign above the door for the cinema, for example, you can see why question marks bubble up over their judgement.
